


Goodbye Notes

by Maybethings



Category: Dragon Age
Genre: F/M, Songfic, Ultimate Sacrifice, Ultimate Sacrifice Warden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-28
Updated: 2011-10-28
Packaged: 2017-11-02 03:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/364472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maybethings/pseuds/Maybethings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Blight. Late at night, Sten hears music coming down the corridors of Redcliffe Castle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goodbye Notes

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr rafflefic for Shotguninfinity, who requested ‘Sten and farewell songs’. Song adapted from S.H.E.'s Goodbye My Love.

Sten couldn’t sleep that night—not even on Redcliffe Castle’s softest beds. In fact, _because_ of the beds. After a solid year and a half of camping out in the open, on ground that was muck and stones and everything in between, the clean sheets felt like blasphemy on his bare skin. He rose with an impatient grunt, shoving aside the coverlets. If he couldn’t rest, he would keep watch instead.

The castle corridors lay silent and dark, lit at regular intervals by the dim glow of torches. No sound disturbed the peace, save for the wind in the new leaves, an owl hunting its prey and—the sound of a lute being plucked, the notes sweet and plaintive. Sten turned, pricking his ears at the source of the music: a room with a lamp still burning and its door ajar. He crept towards it, one hand curled firmly around his sword, and pushed the door open.

Leliana was sitting cross-legged on the bed, hair loose and clothing light. Her fingers brushed against the lute’s strings, coaxing a quavering tune from them as she sang, her voice almost a sob.

_Goodbye my love, goodbye_  
 _I say farewell with heavy heart_  
 _Be happy when I’m gone_  
 _Though now we both must part_

_Goodbye my love, goodbye_  
 _The time we had was not in vain_  
 _I wish one thing alone:_  
 _to see your face again_

“It is late. You should be asleep.” Sten lowered his weapon as he entered. Leliana looked up, a false note squealing from her instrument. He noticed her grey eyes were wet with tears and felt a sudden sliver of embarrassment, like he’d walked in on something he shouldn’t have.

“Oh, hello Sten. You couldn’t sleep either?” she asked hoarsely, hurriedly brushing her tears away.

“Too comfortable.” He remained standing beside her bed. “You were singing again?”

“It was…a goodbye. For the Warden.” Head bowed, she clutched her lute to her chest, as if it would assuage the pain of loss. “Not for the world—just for him. I thought you didn’t understand my songs, Sten.”

“I don’t. But I understand your intent,” he replied, not quite meeting her gaze.

“You miss him too. Come sit with me, my friend,” she said gently, patting the bedspread. He hesitated, but lowered himself onto the mattress as Leliana resumed her playing, singing her heartbreak out into the night.

_Goodbye my love, goodbye,_  
 _Before you is a sea of Man_  
 _If you should sail away,_  
 _Remember here I stand_

_Remember me, my heart_  
 _Remember here I stand_

As Leliana let the lute strings shimmer into silence, a drop of liquid spattered its weathered surface, then another.

“You need rest, Leliana,” Sten said gruffly. “Go to sleep.”

“I shall, soon. Thank you…for listening with me.”

He rose with a curt nod, and for the brief moment that their eyes met, she could swear his were red from corner to corner. “There are no thanks required for honouring a friend.”


End file.
